Defence Minister Peter MacKay will not resign from cabinet over allegations that he knew suspected Taliban prisoners were tortured after being turned over to Afghan police by the Canadian military, he said Monday.

In Halifax to announce funding for recreation facilities in the Halifax Regional Municipality, MacKay was asked by reporters if he would step down.

"No," he said.

Questions about MacKay's political future are being asked after Gen. Walter Natynczyk, Canada's top military commander, said that a Taliban suspect had been abused by Afghan officials after he was turned over by Canadian military personnel.

"I got a call from General Natynczyk, he told me that he had received new information. We spoke about it, I suggested that he go on the record and correct his previous statements that said — as I had said based on the information that I had received from the department — that there wasn't an individual who had been in custody," MacKay said.

"It turned out there were field notes that he hadn't seen. I certainly hadn't seen them."

On Dec. 9, Natynczyk said a suspected Taliban fighter abused by Afghan police in June 2006 had been detained by Canadian troops. That announcement contradicted what he had told a parliamentary committee the day before.

"The individual who was beaten by the Afghan police was, in fact, in Canadian custody," Natynczyk told reporters.

MacKay had earlier told the House of Commons there wasn't "a single incident" to prove allegations raised by diplomat Richard Colvin in 2006 and 2007.